Marxist Thought

1. Societies develop through dialectics

a. Social institutions understood through Dialectics + Economics
2. Indological perspective gives only history, structural functionalism discusses only present
a. Marxist connects both
3. Method: Historical
a. Marxists collect historical data and look at the socio-historical development at
different points of time
There is not one rather many Marxist approaches to study Indian society. While Marxists and
Indologists share the dialectical approach, the Marxists criticise the Indologists’ sociological
position while explaining Indian society.
1. S.A. Dange, the father of the CPI
a. Cultural Marxist
b. Book: From Primitive Communism to Socialism
c. He held that the rituals performed by the Brahmins were not initially a cultural act,
but to increase production in agriculture, increase soil fertility, etc.
i. Hence, respect for Brahmins was neither because of their command of
scriptural knowledge nor because of their divine origin (Purushasukta)
ii. Cultural Marxist: Brahmins in ancient India were respected due to their
economic necessity not cultural significance
1. Therefore, Dange considers Brahmins as a class and not as a
caste.
d. Caste was thus a product of economy, not culture
e. In contemporary India, he felt that workers and labourers should come together to
initiate the revolutions of the proletariat
2. D.D. Kosambi was a historian.
a. Classical Marxist
b. In Rigveda, there is a mention of dasyus or slaves
i. These slaves were not born as slaves and were most likely a different ethnic
group living in the subcontinent
ii. Due to the loss of sovereignty to the Aryans, they were pushed out of the
Varna system and forced to take up menial occupations
c. In ancient India, Brahmins gave ideological justification to the rule of Kshatriyas
i. In reciprocation they received land grants
d. Brahmins not only adviced the rulers on taxation system, laws and other
governance aspects, they also codified discriminatory laws in ancient texts
e. Brahmins were not economic necessities but agents of expliotation.
Therefore, caste in India was similar to class
i. Therefore, the history of Indian society is a history of class formation,
consolidation, and struggle for liberation from class-based inequality.
ii. (Adi-Dravida/dharma/Hindu movements based on this idea)
iii. DALITS in Punjab call themselves Dravidians in the North.
3. RK Mukherjee
a. Book: Social Structure of Values
b. Dialectic Theory to Social Change
 c. When British appeared in India, they carried western values with them. Indians had
their own values too. Social change in India resulted due to dialectic between the
two values.
i. A product of this dialectics is the Indian Middle Class - which is confused,
rootless and has contradictory ideas. This middle class subsequently
became the carrier of social change
ii. Ex: Dayanand Saraswati preached infallibility of the Vedas, at the same
time rejected caste system, idol worship and promoted anglo-Vedic
education
d. The unity of Indian society is a product of brahminical class consciousness that
gave Kshatriyas the right to rule, Vaishyas the right to make wealth, and
Shudras to gratify others.
e. Structural inequality in India is a product of coercive values created and transmitted
by Brahmins who wanted to institutionalise and consolidate their domination
4. EMS Namboodirapad
a. Building of India on modern democratic and secular lines requires a struggle
against the caste-based Hindu society and its culture
5. Kathleen Gough
a. Highlighted class – caste nexus
6. IP Desai
a. Joint family in agrarian societies of Economies of scale & DoL
Contemporaries
1. Randheer Singh
a. Acceleration of world capitalism in India, where the Indian rich are connected to
the global rich in promoting each other's interests. This is resulting in a new avatar
of capitalism, i.e. Globalisation
i. The aim is to create a massive consumerist class of Indians, who join market
to make money and spend it on ever expanding materialistic and
consumeristic desires.
ii. This would lead to Proliterisation of Masses, who would strive to live in a
false sense of happiness.

While AR Desai spoke about capitalism resulting from colonialism, contemporary Marxists speak
about globalisation. What Zamindari and other land tenure systems meant to Desai are SEZ, Land
acquisition and corporate farming for neo-marxists.
AR DESAI

He says that Marxist understanding of India is an attempt to develop

a Historical Materialist interpretation of the history of India.

He used Theory of Base and Superstructure to understand Indian

society.
According to him, Indian history (Marxist perspective) can be
divided into three stages:
1. Pre-colonial
a. Called as Asiatic Mode of Production by Karl Marx
b. Characterised by
i. Absence of markets
ii. Mutual exchange of service and skills (jajmani system)
iii. Presence of political inequality
iv. Communal ownership of property
1. Village committees allotted land to peasants based on their needs
v. Production was for subsistence and through collective participation
1. Part of produce was given to the king voluntarily due to his
responsibility to provide security and irrigation
c. Artisans and craftsmen only produced for utilisation of local community in return
for agricultural produce. This exchange was regulated by Jajmani System
d. Indian feudalism was different from that of western in the sense that agricuture
and industry (artisans) co-existed and there was a symmetrical production
relation between different classes.
i. Whereas in the west, it led to an exploitative system and industry dislocated
feudalism
e. Muslims rulers tried to change superstructure (religion,polity)  but economic
base remained the same  rulers had little impact on village life
i. Hence, Charles Metcalfe called Indian villages as Little Republics
f. The rural system was characterised by equalitarian production relationships due
to common ecomic base.
i. Whereas the urban system had assymmetrical production
relationships due to varied economic base
2. Colonial
a. Book: Social Background in Indian Nationalism (1948)
b. Book: Recent Trends in Indian Nationalism (1960)
c. In Europe, nationalism was based on shared culture (cultural homogeniety)
i. In India, nationalism didn’t emerge based on shared culture, but emerged
due to material conditions created by colonial rule
d. The British directly hit at the roots of Indian villages' economic base
i. British introduced new Factor of Production (FoP) and changed old
Relations of Production (RoP)
e. They integrated village economies with the rural system and international trade,
destroying their self-sufficiency
f. Colonial policies had far-reaching impact
 i. Break-down of Jajmani system
ii. Introduction of new land tenure system and zamindars as private owners
of land
iii. Absentee Landlordism
iv. Market-based exchange system
g. Other changes that created a new social class
i. Railways (facilitated contact with new people and culture)
ii. Postal services (communication)
iii. Centralized uniform law
iv. English education (ideals of equality, liberty)
v. Modern industry and many more, which brought qualitative change in
Indian society
h. Their exploitative means unintentionally unified India and led to INM
i. The national movement was a movement of ALL the social lasses
1. But everyone participated to ensure their class interests
3. Post-colonial
a. As promised during the INM, the State projected a socialist and democratic
agenda and released several welfare policies such as land reforms, cooperative
industry etc.
i. Characterized by the plans of the newly independent bourgeois
b. But these were failures due to lack of enthusiasm and strong will in implementation
c. AR Desai noted that by 1976, 80% of agricultural land was owned by 10% of the
people
i. The benefits of Green Revolution and agricultural subsidies had been
cornered by the rich farmers, and more than 40% of Indian people were
BPL
ii. He starkly remarks that external colonialism has been replaced by internal
colonialism

New farm laws which enable greater capitalist intervention in agriculture show the significance of
Marxist theory to understand changing modes of production in India.

Birth of Caste
1. Aryan invasion destroyed primitive Mode of Production
2. Indigenous were subjected to separate residence
3. Aryans thought themselves as superior, called themselves Brahmin.
a. Different indigenous tribes got their names from the totems they worshipped
b. Their occupation was rigidified by Brahmins
4. Texts were written by the dominant caste to rigidify stratification, eg Rigveda which says
 B-Head, K-Shoulders, V-Legs, S-feet
a. In Rigveda, there is a mention of dasyus or slaves
b. These slaves were not born as slaves and were most likely a different ethnic group
living in the subcontinent
i. Due to the loss of sovereignty to the Aryans, they were pushed out of the
Varna system and forced to take up menial occupations
c. Therefore, the history of Indian society is a history of class formation,
consolidation, and struggle for liberation from class-based inequality.
 d. Adi-Dravida/dharma/Hindu movements based on this idea
e. DALITS in Punjab call themselves Dravidians in the North
Feudalism in India
Indian feudalism was different from that of western in the sense that agricuture and industry
(artisans) co-existed and there was a symmetrical production relation between different classes.
a. Whereas in the west, it led to an exploitative system and industry dislocated feudalism
b. Contrary to Indologists, Desai considered Jajmani system to be exploitative

Peasant Struggles
1. Two volumes entitled Peasant Struggles in India (1979) and Agrarian Struggles in India
after Independence (1986)
2. Agrarian struggles, at present are waged by newly-emerged propertied classes as well
as agrarian poor, especially agrarian proletariat, where the former fight for a greater share
in fruits of development
3. Thus, Desai maintained, progress could be achieved only by radically transforming
exploitative capitalist system in India
State and Society
1. Book: 'State and Society in India'
a. Assumption that “modernization on capitalist path a desirable value premise”
 valuable ideological vehicle to ruling class pursuing capitalist path
b. Repressive role of state and growing resistance to it 
c. In Violation of Democratic Rights in India (book), Repression and Resistance in
India (book), Expanding Governmental Lawlessness (book)
d. He highlights violation of democratic rights of minorities, women, slum
dwellers in urban India, press and other media by state
2. According to Desai, polarization of class interest, especially of bourgeoisie, is foundation
of modern society in India. It has, thus, inherent in it, class contradictions and logic of its
dialectics
Indian Middle Class
1. Those families that went for colonial occupations
2. They spearheaded the Indian National Movement demanding political liberation while
ignoring that the immediate necessity was economic liberation of starving and
empoverished masses
a. Freedom of speech, liberty, press rights were highlighted more than the basic
right to life, food and survival
3. Their focus on the superstructure is the reason why Indian independence didn't result in
economic independence of its people
4. In the present day, middle-class have transformed into global citizens, represent the MNCs
they are associated with and are eager to join the Indian diaspora to avail better
opportunities available outside
5. In both times, they have put their interests ahead of others and broke the time-space
boundation
Welfare State
In an essay titled “The Myth of the Welfare State”  an ideal welfare state has 3 core features
1. Democratic
2. Mixed-economy
3. Positive state (and NOT laissez faire state)
a. That is, the state intervenes positively when things go out of hand
Criticisms
1. Andre Beteille says that Marxists are too committed to economic determinism and are so
unable to realise that reality is vast, unorganised, dichotomous, and chaotic
2. Jyoti Basu
a. Ignore the impact/significance of caste and religion
3. SC Dube: Marxists drag facts to fit a theory rather than make a theory to explain facts
4. TK Oommen says that Indian sociology has been plagued by deterministic approaches
(cultural determinism of Indology and economic determinism of Marxism) and needs to be
liberated from this bondage
5. Gail omvedt
a. Not right to clarify India into 2 polar classes, Dalits are highly oppressed compared
to others

His Views on Contemporary Society

1. Book: State and Society in India
2. Book: India’s Path of Development: A Marxist Approach
3. AR Desai argues that the state apparatus has taken various economic and social measures
to protect the interests of the capitalist class
a. The legal and administrative frameworks have evolved to promote capitalists
4. AR Desai classifies Indian Democratic rights into 3 categories
a. Rights of Bourgeoise
i. Right to Property, Right to Trade and Commerce
b. Civil Rights
i. Freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of thought
ii. These rights are the products of bourgeoise revolution  as they are
manipulated by the bourgeoise to serve their interests
c. Rights of Proletariat
i. Right to strike, etc.
ii. Received less attention
5. (see above) the 2nd and 3rd category of rights are increasingly denied to ordinary people
6. He believed that Indian society can't change through the present system of democratic
socialism
a. Need to look at it in the context of history and roots - Indian Freedom Struggle,
which was led by bourgeoise and the post-independence power system, which is
held by bourgeoise.
 i. Hence the public policy in India is driven by capitalism but ideologies
glorify socialism. There is a dichotomy between ideology and
actions leading to a paradox of development
ii. Ex: Land reforms were introduced as reinforcement of socialist agenda but
there was no net real change from it. The NSSO data of 1970s indicated
that the percentage of poor didn't substantially change post reforms
iii. PRI are touted as grass root democracy but in reality, they have been
functioning of centres of power for the wealthy and their proxies

Acceleration of world capitalism in India, where the Indian rich are connected to the global rich in
promoting each other's interests. This is resulting in a new avatar of capitalism, i.e. Globalisation
The aim is to create a massive consumerist class of Indians, who join market to make money and
spend it on ever expanding materialistic and consumeristic desires.
This would lead to Proliterisation of Masses, who would strive to live in a False Consciousness.

Relevance of Marxist Approach

1. Desai applies historical materialism for understanding transformation of Indian society.
a. He explains how national consciousness emerged through qualitative changes
in Indian society
2. Desai and Marxism offered a new perspective on Indian sociology, so far dominated by
American structural functionalism and British functionalism
3. The slogan of socialistic pattern is a hoax to create illusion and confuse masses. The real
intentions and practices are geared to development on capitalist lines
4. According to Desai, bourgeoisie is dominant class in India. Indian society is based on
capitalist economy. The dominant culture in our country is therefore culture of dominant
capitalist class. Indian capitalism was a by-product of imperialist capitalism
5. Desai undeterred by these imperialistic influences continued to write on Indian society and
state from perspective of an involved scholarship
6. He provided a forum for radical-minded scholars to broaden their horizon of research
7. PRI, Land Reforms
8. Land Acquisition, SEZ, Oxfam Reports

Ghurye Srinivas Desai

Influenced WHR Rivers, Bhandarkar Radcliffe Brown, Evans Marx, Trotsky
Institute of Pune Pritchard
Major Works 1. Caste and Race in 1. Social Change in Social Background of Indian
India (on Caste) Modern India Nationalism
2. Indian Sadhu (on (Change in
Religion) society)
2. A Remembered
Village (Caste)

Methods  Book view  Field view  Field view

 Diffusionist  Direct  Historical
 Descriptive observation Materialistic
Ethnography  Ethnography approach
Concepts Hinduized Tribes Dominant Caste, Dialectical Materialism in
Sanskritization India
General View of Society Hindu society, order and Systemic, Holistic, order Historical materialistic view
change understood in terms and change understood in and rejected homogenous
of changing Hindu terms of cultural change; and cooperative image of
traditions analyzed through case Indian society
studies
Perspective Indological SF Conflict
Features in Perspective  Culture is specific  Systemic view  Contradictions
 Indian society is  Structural recognized;
unique  need a cleavages studied Jajmani system
unique approach as they appeared seen as
 Ideal typical view in newly changed exploitative
of society structural context  Caste viewed
from an economic
framework

Relevance New techniques like - -

content analysis are giving
a new life to the Indology
perspective